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Saturday was a fun and educational experience for Suffolk residents as locals came to visit the Great Dismal Swamp Wildlife Refuge’s 50th Anniversary Festival.

Held at Jericho Lane Trailhead on Saturday, Sept. 21, the festival provided plenty of engaging and family friendly activities such as scavenger hunts, arts and crafts, archery, live animals and more. During the event, Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge Manager Chris Lowie says that the turnout exceeded his expectations. 

“Thanks to the partners that are all providing information, kids activities, the performances about the history of the Dismal Swamp, and people are still coming. Here it is, 1:30 p.m., and people are still coming,” Lowie said. “I am just ecstatic and overwhelmed, it’s like I just won the Superbowl and I am going to Disney World!”

Lowie discussed the educational programs, noting two performances, a play titled ‘A Place of Our Own’ and a dance demonstration from the Nansemond Indian Tribe.

“Really a theater performance with actual actors at our Education Pavilion that are [performing] a story of Freedom Seekers that came through the swamp to escape slavery and build a life for themselves,” Lowie described. “Also the Nansemond Indian Tribe is doing [a] performance with celebratory dances and doing some education [for] the public about their tribal culture. And then we have some educational presentations about 50 years of refuge management and the wildlife of the refuge.”

One of the many vendors in attendance was Nature’s Nanny Wildlife Rehabilitation providing showcases of birds they are working to help: Eclipse, a female Great Horned Owl, Star, a male Barred Owl, and Harvey, a male Red-Tailed Hawk. Dawn Federovich of NNWR discussed their nonprofit.

“We rescue and rehabilitate the native birds of prey here in Virginia, and we also work with corvids and we also do some waterfowl,” she said. “We basically run on volunteer time – none of us get paid for this – the main goal for Nature’s Nanny is to have our birds rescued, rehabilitated and released back into the wild. But unfortunately, sometimes, things do happen and these guys can’t get back. If they can’t be with us, we find them an education program somewhere in the U.S.”

Federovich says they’ve sent birds to places such as Utah, Florida, Ohio to help find a home. Denise McAlpine of NNWR says it’s “awesome” being a part of the festival.

“Everybody’s been very kind and very supportive of us,” McAlpine said. “And just being a part of this, I know that Dismal Swamp is trying to grow in what they’re doing, but the fact that they allow us out here just to demonstrate what nature does for us and these birds and how they relate to all of us.”

With 50 year celebrations happening across Suffolk, Lowie expressed what it meant to him as Refuge Manager to help celebrate.

“For me, it’s talking to the public, educating them about the significance of the swamp and trying to build environmental stewardship, not just for the swamp, but for all ecosystems in the environment,” Lowie said. “When I got here 17 years ago, the staff told me the swamp water would get in my blood. I never thought I’d be here 17 years and it did. It’s just a special place and to see all these people enjoying it, and at the same time, we’re out here in an area that isn’t having a huge impact on wildlife. To have a thousand people here maybe today.”

Lowie continued.

“But, you know, we have it in a place that it can be done without negativity affecting our primary purpose of protecting the habitat for wildlife,” he said.

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